Get rid of this clown and put Darren Chester back in.

Chester did a much better job and was not porking his staffer.

Transport portfolio in the balance as Joyce admits to affair

Chester did a much better job and was not porking his staffer.

Transport portfolio in the balance as Joyce admits to affair

Are you sure about,that ?  

BigShunter.

I cant be certain of course

Hes not on record for spending 50 days extra in Canberra tho...

Unless there is more to the story I don't see how this is relevant to the job.

Looks like Joyce is in real trouble and might go.

Unless there is more to the story I don't see how this is relevant to the job.

Agreed, I can see why the Nats would want him out of the leadership as the situation goes to character but I can't see him resigning as the Member for New England.

The Nats may lose the seat in a voter backlash if he did, especially if Tony Windsor decided to run.

And unless they find that he has broken the Ministerial Code of Conduct then I don't see why he would need to be moved from the portfolio.

The worse thing a government can do is keep shifting people in and out of ministerial positions, when it happens it takes ages to get the new minister up to speed and therefore things don't get done.

BG

'And unless they find that he has broken the Ministerial Code of Conduct then I don't see why he would need to be moved from the portfolio. '

To me there is a difference between a legalistic Code of Conduct and Basic Morality. The politicians/lawyers (one and the same in so many cases) will find a way around the Code but no one can dispute the Basic Morality aspect.

'The worst thing a government can do is keep shifting people in and out of ministerial positions, when it happens it takes ages to get the new minister up to speed and therefore things don't get done.'

Many never 'get up to speed' and often 'things don't get done' regardless. Nevertheless we still need competent (haha) and experienced (hahahaha) Ministers. We also need, equally, a non-politicised, professional Public Service. Sadly, it seems that we have none of these at the moment.

I read this morning that it's not the first mistress and its also not the first pregnancy... he really has to go, Barnaby doesn't see the problem but we can't have such an openly proliferate liar in government (we have enough already!).

The Nats may lose the seat in a voter backlash if he did, especially if Tony Windsor decided to run.

Barnaby will have to face his electorate again within 12-14 months with a general election - he knows full well he will experience the wrath of his electors for keeping this covered up (so does the National Party).

I think it was John Anderson who told his National Party colleagues back in the day:

"If your wife can't trust you, why should the voters?".

Ok reality check

We all know he is not the first MP to have an affair and certainly you have your head in the sand if you think he is not the first MP to have an affair or relationship with a staffer and its not illegal nor against the Code of Conduct to do so. No employer can control who their staff have relationships with and they certainly cannot fie you if you do regardless if its an affair or a relationship. Over 40% of marriages come from the work place so no govt is going to pretend to try and ban this.  

Barnaby just faced the electorate of controversial constitutional "glitch" over his citizenship and despite the govt being on the nose he increased his % from 52% to 64% on Primary and would now be one of the safest seats in Australia, so the electorate saw the "glitch" for what it is and told the High Court and those doing the snooping who caused this to FO and put him back in his seat.

So facing the next election in 18mths, he will survive and hence as Don says does he need to go? No, not at all. When the electors are in their private voting booth, how many do you think have their own skeleton in the past or simply don't give a crap and only focus on his results that they pay him to do? We all know in a few weeks few will even remember this and in 18mths those that do have other more realistic issues.


Does he need to go as deputy PM? yes! He was an ar$e hole to his wife at a time his political career was in crisis and for now at least many will see this a X against the govt as a whole, even if his own voters don't care or care enough.

Personally, don't care in who/what or where Barnaby puts the old fella.

Issue for me is job creation/s for the squeeze, free accommodation. And the hypocrisy of those.
Some FOI requests have been denied, 7.30 report IIRC.

Question time today was interesting, BJ asked RE statements of more affordable housing. Awhile back he suggested moving to Armidale, well Genius, rent free, who wouldn't.
Fighting for his political life, not going down without swinging.
Even with swing to the Nats in the by-election should one be held now with what has become public knowledge, the drovers dog would win.

We all know he is not the first MP to have an affair and certainly you have your head in the sand if you think he is not the first MP to have an affair or relationship with a staffer and its not illegal nor against the Code of Conduct to do so. No employer can control who their staff have relationships with and they certainly cannot fie you if you do regardless if its an affair or a relationship. Over 40% of marriages come from the work place so no govt is going to pretend to try and ban this.

The problem is that he is (probably soon to be was) married to someone else. Thus far this "workplace relationship" has NOT resulted in marriage and can't while BJ is married to someone else. If nothing else it shows that BJ lacks moral character. Leadership material? I think not.

Personally, don't care in who/what or where Barnaby puts the old fella.

Issue for me is job creation/s for the squeeze, free accommodation. And the hypocrisy of those.
Some FOI requests have been denied, 7.30 report IIRC.

Question time today was interesting, BJ asked RE statements of more affordable housing. Awhile back he suggested moving to Armidale, well Genius, rent free, who wouldn't.
Fighting for his political life, not going down without swinging.
Even with swing to the Nats in the by-election should one be held now with what has become public knowledge, the drovers dog would win.

Probably obvious to some, but who is RE?

We all know he is not the first MP to have an affair and certainly you have your head in the sand if you think he is not the first MP to have an affair or relationship with a staffer and its not illegal nor against the Code of Conduct to do so. No employer can control who their staff have relationships with and they certainly cannot fie you if you do regardless if its an affair or a relationship. Over 40% of marriages come from the work place so no govt is going to pretend to try and ban this.

The problem is that he is (probably soon to be was) married to someone else. Thus far this "workplace relationship" has NOT resulted in marriage and can't while BJ is married to someone else. If nothing else it shows that BJ lacks moral character. Leadership material? I think not.

I think the days when a prospective country leader had to be holier than thou in regard to marriage are behind us for most of the voters at least because they are certainly no better off and most focus how pollies are running the country, not their home life.

Whether this relationship results in marriage is irrelevant, if BJ wasn't actually married and still living with his family, then this wouldn't be a discussion point. Headline in New Idea would have been "BJ and Co to welcome a baby.", with happy snaps of the smiling couple at home.

Remember we also had a female PM who wasn't married! Also, Bob Hawke confessed to screwing around on his ex and Bill Clinton survived with an increase in ratings follow his very public outing of an affair while in office.

Yes, what BJ did was not a good look. Some won't like it, but I doubt most will care and as time goes on, less will care. We also don't know the full status at home either although his wife is saying she didn't know. For now, I'm sure he will keep quiet and stay out of lime light for a while until the media have something else to play with.

My personal opinion for this sort of thing is don't stand in one paddock eating while doing a taste test of the neighbors, make a decision and exit your paddock before hand, I clean break. But I would not hold it against him at the ballot polls either.

Joyce will survive as this is the nature of our politics in this country.

Do you really think the politicians actually care about what we think?

Don’t think he will be a good infrastructure minister either.

Joyce will survive as this is the nature of our politics in this country.

Do you really think the politicians actually care about what we think?

Don’t think he will be a good infrastructure minister either.

If you don't live in the bush then you are absolutely right, the Nationals don't care what you think. A bunch of city centric neo lefties calling for his scalp won't bother them one bit, Joyce has done a lot to put R&R A on the political map (not always in a good way) and he has a lot of respect among rural voters for that.

People in his electorate would be horrified at his behavior but even more horrified about how it has been played out in public through the media which most will see as yet another attach on them by big city media.

From what I have read Joyce has the backing of most of the Nationals party room so unless some other muck is dragged up about his I would expect him to stay put.

BG

YM.  RE means regarding. Should have phrased better. Apologies.

So who's in charge of Transport while Barnaby is on leave?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-15/barnaby-joyce-will-take-leave-next-week-mathias-cormann-act-pm/9450796

So who's in charge of Transport while Barnaby is on leave?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-15/barnaby-joyce-will-take-leave-next-week-mathias-cormann-act-pm/9450796

Chester maybe?!

So who's in charge of Transport while Barnaby is on leave?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-15/barnaby-joyce-will-take-leave-next-week-mathias-cormann-act-pm/9450796

The only thing you need a Minister for is answering questions in parliament.

The staff who actually get stuff done will still be at work, and might actually be more productive without politicians getting in the way.

We all know he is not the first MP to have an affair and certainly you have your head in the sand if you think he is not the first MP to have an affair or relationship with a staffer and its not illegal nor against the Code of Conduct to do so. No employer can control who their staff have relationships with and they certainly cannot fie you if you do regardless if its an affair or a relationship. Over 40% of marriages come from the work place so no govt is going to pretend to try and ban this.

The problem is that he is (probably soon to be was) married to someone else. Thus far this "workplace relationship" has NOT resulted in marriage and can't while BJ is married to someone else. If nothing else it shows that BJ lacks moral character. Leadership material? I think not.

I think the days when a prospective country leader had to be holier than thou in regard to marriage are behind us for most of the voters at least because they are certainly no better off and most focus how pollies are running the country, not their home life.

Whether this relationship results in marriage is irrelevant, if BJ wasn't actually married and still living with his family, then this wouldn't be a discussion point. Headline in New Idea would have been "BJ and Co to welcome a baby.", with happy snaps of the smiling couple at home.

Remember we also had a female PM who wasn't married! Also, Bob Hawke confessed to screwing around on his ex and Bill Clinton survived with an increase in ratings follow his very public outing of an affair while in office.

Yes, what BJ did was not a good look. Some won't like it, but I doubt most will care and as time goes on, less will care. We also don't know the full status at home either although his wife is saying she didn't know. For now, I'm sure he will keep quiet and stay out of lime light for a while until the media have something else to play with.

My personal opinion for this sort of thing is don't stand in one paddock eating while doing a taste test of the neighbors, make a decision and exit your paddock before hand, I clean break. But I would not hold it against him at the ballot polls either.

Shane, my comment was with respect to your comment: "Over 40% of marriages come from the work place so no govt is going to pretend to try and ban this." in which you specifically mentioned "marriages" as opposed to "relationships".

The issue is not about workplace relationships; it’s about, primarily, the misuse of public monies in fostering the relationship, eg
- creating $190,000pa positions for your ‘partner’ that aren’t advertised
- excessive nights in Canberra claiming travel allowance
- inappropriate car rental claims
- $40,000 ‘award’ from Gina Reinhardt
- rent-free accommodation (while extolling the virtues of cheap living in Armidale) from benefactor.

Messrs Colston, Slipper and Thomson were rightly shown the door for similar or lesser offences. If the adviser was so good that the positions didn’t need to be advertised why didn’t she advise the Minister not to have an affair!

Personally, don't care in who/what or where Barnaby puts the old fella.

Issue for me is job creation/s for the squeeze, free accommodation. And the hypocrisy of those.
Some FOI requests have been denied, 7.30 report IIRC.

Question time today was interesting, BJ asked RE statements of more affordable housing. Awhile back he suggested moving to Armidale, well Genius, rent free, who wouldn't.
Fighting for his political life, not going down without swinging.
Even with swing to the Nats in the by-election should one be held now with what has become public knowledge, the drovers dog would win.

I agree all of the above, but he also stood up for the sanctity of marriage refusing to support SSM and more appalling he opposed a life saving vaccine being listed on the PBS because he claimed it may result in females becoming promiscuous. In the latter issue he was specifically concerned at the impact on the morals of his daughters but I guess the welfare of his daughters no longer matter. The guy is a total hypocrite, and although a number of Nationals suffering paranoia about the cities may wish to keep him, I am sure Turnbull will soon see him off, recognising the liability he is to most fair minded folks.